[ig1]

Despite the fact they claim to have a patent pending, there doesn't seem to be any patent applications filed for okcupid (or under their company name "Humor Rainbow, Inc.").

I'm guessing the "patent pending" is a marketing technique rather than a legal declaration.

So you should be fine using something similar.

[27182818284]

This is interesting to me as well. I also did a quick Google search, but found no specific patents by OKCupid jumping out at me. It was by no means a thorough search, though.